


Second Chance

by Hello_Spikey



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-01
Updated: 2009-12-01
Packaged: 2019-10-29 20:46:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17815229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hello_Spikey/pseuds/Hello_Spikey
Summary: In the lead-up to the big battle, a time-traveling Lindsey tries to convince Spike that he's worth saving.





	Second Chance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blondebitz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blondebitz/gifts).



> As you may have heard, it is the incomparable Blondebitz's birthday. And so I just had to write her some Splindsey!
> 
> Uh... but it came out all... not porny. Forgive me?
> 
> PG-13, with usual warning for Spike having a potty mouth. This takes place during "Not Fade Away" - sorta.

Lindsey looked down at Spike, graceless and innocent in slumber, sprawled over every available inch of the single bed – more than every inch, in fact; one foot dangled off to the right, an arm off to the left.

He didn’t want to wake him, but after searching frantically in the dimly-lit apartment for any sign of the date or time, he gave up and squatted down over the peaceful face. “Hey!” Not a flutter of an eyelash. Lindsey stretched, sighed, and then smacked Spike’s shoulder. “Wake up!”

Spike snorted – a sound he would deny he ever made – and blinked in confusion, the wisps of a warm, comfortable dream slipping away like a dropped sheet. “Wha? Angel?”

Lindsey’s lips twitched. “Not even close.”

Spike straightened, one hand gripping the edge of the bed in preparation for launching himself at the ex-lawyer. The soft post-sleep confusion was gone, leaving his face hard. “How’d you get out?”

“I didn’t. Go on, check with Wolfram and Hart security; I’m still in their holding cell.”

Spike smacked Lindsey’s arm weakly, having expected his hand to go right through. He stood and touched Lindsey more firmly, with his fingertips spread on his chest. With a little push, Spike backed off. “Okay, I’ll bite: if you’re still there, what are you doing here?”

Lindsey watched him strut to the refrigerator, all attitude despite the sheet-wrinkles on his back and the low-slung sleep pants. Very low-slung, actually. Lindsey cleared his throat. “Uh… yeah. Look, I don’t know how much time I have. Angel is going to kill me.”

Spike gave him an eye-roll before bending over to investigate the sparse contents of the fridge. “If he was, he’d have done it already. And anyway, not exactly all too concerned about your fate.”

“Damn it. I mean, he already has. Well, will… I, look, I said I didn’t have a lot of time. Just listen. When Angel calls for the big show-down…”

Spike closed the fridge and leaned back against it, one eyebrow raised as he twisted the cap off a beer. “Peaches tell you his secret plans?”

Lindsey raised his fist, stomping toward the blonde. “Just. Listen.” He ticked off points on his fingers. “Angel is planning a big show down. We’ll all get different jobs. You get to wipe out the fell brotherhood. I go with Lorne to clean. Angel orders Lorne to shoot me. He does.” 

Spike squinted over his beer. “Lorne? Now I know you’re putting me on.”

“I’m coming to you straight from Hell, Spike. I brokered a deal with one of the more unstable powers, to send me back in time and ask someone to stop it from happening. I guess they picked you. Probably because you have no reason to ever forgive me. But we don’t all get forgiven because we deserve it, do we?”

“That’s low.” Spike set the beer down on the little formica table between them.

“All I can say is I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t mean squat, but I am sorry, Spike. Sorry I fucked with your life. Sorry I had to come back here, so hell-bent on revenge. Funny thing, standing here, after dying because of that prick, I’ve never wanted revenge on him less. It just isn’t worth it. It never was. All I want is a second chance.”

Spike swallowed, studying Lindsey’s face for signs of falsehood, though he knew he’d been fooled before. “These evil powers you bargained with, had you by the short and curlies, didn’t they? What’s the price, then, for…”

“You really don’t want to know,” Lindsey cut him off. He put his hand on Spike’s forearm. “And like I said, they never said how much time I’d get to convince you. So… just…” he leaned forward.

And vanished.

Spike stood still a moment, staring in shock at the place Lindsey had been. He picked up his beer, downed its contents, and went back to bed.

***

“It’s not about what I think,” Lorne said, reaching into his pocket. “This was Angel’s plan.”

Lindsey turned. “Come on,” he smiled, “I could sing for you.”

“I…”

Spike crashed through the wreckage-and-bodies strewn office like a bull in a china stop. “Lorne! Wait!”

Lorne and Lindsey turned, Lindsey with even more confusion, Lorne with resignation.

“We’re all done here,” Lorne said, trying to smile. “Go on to the meeting site, Spike. We’ll be along.”

“Bugger that, Lorne. I know what Angel told you to do.”

Lorne picked his hand out of his pocket and smoothed the front lay of his suit. “And?”

“And don’t bloody do it! What else would you expect me to say?”

Lindsey leaned to look around Lorne. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Lorne said. And he walked past Spike without looking back. “Keep out of touch.”

Spike fell against an overturned desk with a sigh and ran a shaking hand over his face.

“What the hell just happened?” Lindsey’s voice rose. “I’m part of the team now. I don’t appreciate you all keeping me in the dark.”

Spike shook his head. “You just got a second chance, lawyer.” Weary, he pushed himself back up to standing. “Come on, we have a hopeless battle to catch.”

***

It was a long, strange series of events. Lindsey was curious about Angel’s double-take when he and Spike showed up at the rain-soaked alley, but then there were bigger problems to deal with, and in the chaos he ended up, of all places, helping Lorne govern Silver Lake. Strong right arm was a weird new role for him, especially with such a flamboyant boss, who would occasionally just stare at him, quietly, as though seeing all of Lindsey’s past and future playing out on a scrim between them, and considering if it was movie-of-the-week material or had the staying power for a prime-time series.

And then Lindsey was standing, at a blissfully normal street corner, where the walls weren’t alive and the sky was good old smoke-cast grey, and Spike was striding away, striking out on his own.

Lindsey ran to catch up before Spike kicked off on a motorcycle he’d procured somewhere. “Wait up.”

Spike turned, blinked, and said. “Oh. Right.”

“Don’t disappear into the night. I have questions. Lorne said, once…”

“You have anything you need to get?”

Lindsey blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Your things, Cowboy. You need to grab anything from the old apartment, maybe from Wolfram and Hart?”

“No. Nothing I love is here, anymore.”

Spike smiled, and nodded, “Then hop on. We’ll figure it out someplace far from Angel’s shadow, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Lindsey said. The vampire scooted forward, giving him room to swing his leg over the back of the bike. Spike aimed for the dark horizon, and Lindsey laughed. He didn’t know why, but he felt a great weight falling behind them. It was best, that they just went, and didn’t talk.

They had all the time in the world.

END


End file.
